Alumni Spotlight | Lakefield College School Blog

Sam Turnbull ’03 | Vegan Brand Builder (Alumni in Food Businesses)

Posted on 22/03/202322/02/2023Categories LCS Learns

For one who never expected to become a vegan, and who didn’t want to become one when she first felt the inclination, Sam Turnbull has executed a magnificent transformation into a leader and innovator in the vegan movement. It started on an early December evening, “not feeling terrific”, and a decision to watch the documentary Vegucated, about three meat-eating New Yorkers’ discovery of the benefits of veganism and the uncomfortable truths of animal husbandry. “I thought it was going to be about vegetables,” Sam says, but the next morning she cleaned her fridge and cupboards of all animal products. This was a significant decision for a woman raised on a tree farm in Sunderland, ON., on the brink of cottage country in a family of hunters, butchers and chefs with chickens in the yard and animal heads on the walls. Besides dogs, cats, gerbils and turtles, she had a rabbit…

Danny McCubbin ’82 | A Force For Change (Alumni in Food Businesses)

Posted on 15/03/202316/03/2023Categories LCS Learns

Danny McCubbin ’82 describes himself as a food campaigner, and he occupies a unique intersection of the culinary sector where art, business, media, social change and gastronomy meet. You may wonder what that means but it all makes sense when you look at the path he has taken. Start with his long-held belief that food can transform lives—starting with his own. It’s a fascinating journey that has seen him play a central role in building the restaurant, publishing, television and social media empire of one of the original and most renowned celebrity chefs, Jamie Oliver. At the same time, he has helped develop community and remedial social programs in the UK and Italy that have given hope and improved the lives of countless people, young and old. Born and raised near Brisbane on Australia’s Gold Coast, Danny came from a food-oriented family. “My mom was a great cook,” he says.…

Jess (Arsenault) Thoem ’00 | A Sense of Community (Alumni in Food Businesses)

Posted on 8/03/202322/02/2023Categories LCS Learns

Running a bakery is a demanding life. The day starts early and it requires precision and attention to detail. It’s a science where measurements, temperature, food chemistry and biology matter. But it’s also an art, where creativity, colour, flavours and presentation perform psychological magic. So it may be an unexpected career for Jess (Arsenault) Thoem ’00, who studied fine arts as an undergrad, holds a Masters in art therapy and counselling from Concordia University and worked several years as a counsellor for the BC government in the northern BC town of Smithers. But it’s also a perfect fit. “The creativity is no different than in the fine arts,” says Jess. “It’s just a different medium. And people eat with their eyes.” Jess and her husband Graham Thoem started the Hard Winter Bakery in Peterborough, ON, in 2014. They met in art school in 2002 and then travelled together through Australia…